A Midwinter Day's Resonance
by Racke
Summary: An alternative ending to "A Midsummer Day's Resonance", where Kasumi-chan visits Tokyo, and accidentally bumps into a beautiful girl.


A Midwinter Day's Resonance

Story based on: A Midsummer Day's Resonance (or) Natsu no Hi no Resonance

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

XXX

It's been almost six months since the last time my phone connected to Minamo-chan and Itsuki-san. Six months since the day we realized that we lived in parallel worlds.

I can't say how many tears I've cried since then, I suppose this is what they mean when they talk about 'crying a river'.

My ordinary days haven't changed much, I've returned to drinking Capri Sun again on my way to school, even if I now drink it on my way to school rather than throwing it inside my backpack.

I still carry around this broken-down phone of mine everywhere I go. I guess I'm still waiting, always hoping that I'll be able to see them, even if I already know that it will never connect to them again.

I sigh as I look up at the small speck of sky visible through the tall buildings. A part of me is excited to be here, the city in which my first love lived, but I know that even if she's right next to me, I would never be able to see her. Truly, this distance is cruel.

It's not like I'm really looking for her, there's another reason for me being here, but my gaze seem to wander, continuously trying to pick out things I remember from our times together.

After the time where that boy crashed into me when rounding that corner, I've started being a bit more careful when on my bike, but I'd never really considered the possibility that a similar thing could happen even when I was just walking.

Thankfully, this time, none of the things I was carrying was run over by a car, and so – despite falling to the ground in a pretty unpleasant manner – I'm not really all that annoyed. Besides, it was probably my fault anyways, since I'd been spacing out.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry, are you alright?" I look up at where the voice is coming from, preparing to apologize in turn, but I can only stare as my eyes meet hers.

"… Itsuki-san…?" I wonder if I hit my head when I fell, because clearly I must be dreaming right now. There's now way that she's here, she's in a parallel world.

"Eh? Have we met before?" she looks a bit confused as she tries to place my face.

"Ah, no," it's almost like a dagger is plunged into my heart. She doesn't remember me. Even if this girl _is_ Itsuki-san, she's not the Itsuki-san that I knew, "You don't know me," a sudden impulse grabs me, "But I met you six months ago."

"Six months ago?" if possible, she looks even more confused by my answer, "I'm sorry, but I don't remember…"

"That's to be expected," I laugh a little, it sounds forced, "It wasn't _you_ after all…" I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

"Eh?" she looks worried for some reason, "Are you alright?" she repeats her earlier question, but this time it's different. This time she's looking really worried about me.

"Ah?" I look up at her through my tears, and I do my best to smile, "Don't worry, I'm just suffering from a broken heart…" I laugh a little, but it comes out weird, so I try changing the subject, "Oh, by the way, how's Minamo-chan doing?" Itsuki-san blinks.

"You're a friend of Minamo-chan?" she looks really confused.

"I met her six months ago, a day or so before I met you," I begin to pick up the things that scattered in my fall, "But, I was really surprised back then, I never thought that I'd fall in love at first sight."

"Eh?" she blinks, and then she stares at me, before finally opening her mouth, "I'm sor-" I interrupt her before she's able to say it.

"Don't worry about it, it wasn't _you_ after all," I do my best not to flinch as I continue to pick up my scattered belongings.

"Umm… Why do you keep saying that?"

"How it wasn't _you_?" she nods, "Ah, well," I look up at the sky in thought for a moment, "Do you believe in parallel worlds?" she blinks, and I laugh a little embarrassed, "Ah, I didn't really believe in them either… until we met at the station that day, and the two of you were standing right next to me, but I wasn't able to see you…" I can feel the tears welling up again.

"Wait, if you couldn't _see_ that 'me', how come you knew me?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story… Umm… Six months ago, did Minamo-chan drop her phone in the ramen at the cafeteria?" Itsuki-san looks thoughtful for a moment, then she nods, "Ah, so it really did happen in this world too…" I can feel a slight smile tugging at my lips, a real smile this time, not forced like the others, "At that time, I had a few bad things happen, and I ended up with having my phone broken. Then, when I was making my way home, an image of a girl appeared in the air."

"Eh? How's that possible?"

"I really don't have a clue," I smile a little, "But I'm happy that it _did_ happen, because that's how I met Minamo-chan, and in the long run, that's how I met you," I can feel my face heating up as I remember that I've already accidentally confessed my love to the other world's 'her' to her.

"I see…" she still looks a little thoughtful, but not nearly as confused as she have until now, "I'm sorry. It's not like I believe you'd be lying, but I can't really believe what you're saying…" having finally gathered all of my things, I stand up, smiling back at her.

"That's okay, really, after all, I'm still not sure whether I believe it myself," for a moment the two of us are at a loss for words, simply meeting each others gaze, then a sudden thought popped up in my head, "Umm, this might sound a bit weird, but could I have your phone number?" she blinks.

"My phone number…?"

"Yeah, well, I don't think I'd forgive myself if I were to just walk away without any means of contacting the two of you…" I can feel the blush starting up again, but I ignore it.

"I suppose I can understand that…" she smiles, "Okay, but I'd like to have your phone number in return, " I blink, "I don't think Minamo-chan is going to believe me, but you look really honest, so you might be able to convince her."

After exchanging numbers, and talking about random things for a little while, the both of us continued on our ways.

It's a complicated feeling to meet an identical copy of your first love. There's the joy of being able to meet her again, there's the embarrassment of remembering that they weren't the same people, there's the uncertainty of whether or not you're in love with _them_, or if you're simply remembering the one you fell in love with in the first place whenever you look at them.

On one side, I didn't want to fall in love with this 'new' Itsuki-san, because it felt like betraying the 'other' Itsuki-san. But, my heart wasn't really listening to this qualm of the mind, and was simply happy to be able to see Itsuki-san's smile again – even if they were, sort of, different people.

It was thoughts like these that were the main reason for me being unable to sleep that night. Oddly enough, despite this lack of sleep, I almost leapt out of bed when the alarm clock finally announced that it was time to get up.

I'd be able to see her again.

Somewhere during the night, my brain had been divided into camps, and I now found myself facing a stream of happy thoughts from the 'I get to meet Itsuki-san again, and maybe I could hug her or …-' camp. This camp basically consisted of, well, love.

In it's opposition was the 'Itsuki-san isn't Itsuki-san, and even if she were you still wouldn't stand a chance' camp. This camp was filled with things like, guilt – she really didn't want to take advantage of Itsuki-san – sadness – Itsuki-san was standing right in front of her, reminding her of the love that was never to be – and a 'this is to good to be true'-kind of feeling.

The latter of these camp – and the more negative one – seemed to be asleep for the moment, and so it was a happy morning, filled with promises and potential. Unfortunately for this positive mood, I was struck by a sudden insight.

I might be able to take a bath with Itsuki-san – Minamo-chan would have to be present, but still.

This thought rendered the positive side unconscious from over stimuli, and so the negative side stepped in just as I made it to the front door. Needless to say, it took a moment if painful self-reflection before I was finally able to open said door, and even then, it took a very long time to do so – negative thoughts are _negative_.

Meeting with Minamo-chan had been a lot like meeting… well, Minamo-chan. And, despite this originally strange introduction, we became friends almost immediately – Itsuki-san had looked somewhat startled by the ease of it.

Over the course of this day, there were few – if any – moments where the negative camp got any say in things, so it was a happy day, filled to the brim with silly antics, and the retelling of the moments I'd spent together with the 'other' them.

These moments had fascinated Minamo-chan, who'd been more or less shaking me like a rag doll to make me go into more details – Itsuki-san had scolded her for that – and despite that Itsuki-san had looked curious to hear about it as well, she'd been a lot more subtle about it.

How many days did we spend together? How many times did we meet? I quickly lost count, the numbers were forgotten in the happiness of being together with the two of them, though Itsuki-san still had a kind of special status in my mind.

I smile a little as I stare at the unfamiliar ceiling, listening to the gentle snoring of Minamo-chan. I was tired too, but I just couldn't seem to fall asleep. Perhaps this was due to the beautiful girl lying next to me, and perhaps it was because I was trying not to drown out Minamo-chan's snoring with my heartbeat.

"Kasumi-chan?" a quiet whisper sends happy shivers down my spine, "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I turned over so that I could face Itsuki-san for anything she might say.

"Ah, good," she seemed really relieved, "Kasumi-chan, you know, back when we first met, do you remember what you said?" for some reason she wasn't meeting my eyes.

"I said a lot of things," I could feel myself blushing, I must have been rambling back then.

"You said that you'd been in love with that 'other' me."

"Ah," crud, she still remembered that? "You don't need to worry about it, I don't think I ever had any hope to start with," I laughed weakly, "It was an unrequited love from the get-go."

"Because she wasn't interested in girls that way?" uwah, bullseye.

"Yeah," I know it already, but it still stings to hear it out loud.

"I see," for some reason, she looked sort of nervous, "Kasumi-chan?" she finally looked up, and, in doing so, met my eyes. Her nervous expression seemed to evaporate, leaving only an honestly worried face as she stared at me, "Kasumi-chan, what's wrong?"

"Eh?" she seemed really worried about me for some reason, "I'm fine, why are you-?"

"You're crying…" I blinked as she moved closer, gently brushing away the tears that I hadn't even known was leaking out through my defenses.

"Ah, I guess I am…" I try to force a happy expression onto my face, but I don't think it's even close to being a smile.

"I'm sorry," I stare at Itsuki-san for a moment as I try to understand the words that just came out through her lips.

"Eh? W-Why are you a-apologizing?" I don't understand this, this makes no sense. It's as if my head suddenly turned into a beehive of questions that I just can't seem to make sense of.

"Well, I think that one of us should," she smiles an odd smile, "And since you wouldn't be able to hear her even if she did… I figured that it'd be up to me," I simply stare at her dumbly, not really sure about what's happening, "Even if I wasn't the one who said it to you…" for some reason, Itsuki-san was blushing.

"Well, there's no reason for either of you to apologize, really. I mean, I'm the one who fell in love with you, it's not like you led me on or anything. I'm happy just being friends with you," now _that_ was probably even stranger than the blush, Itsuki-san seemed to actually be frowning at something.

"That's-," she seemed to be searching for the right words, "I don't… I don't think that you're happy _enough_," I blinked. Wait, what does that-? The beehive of questions was, not only interrupted, but wiped out instantaneously as something soft connected with my lips.

The world turned a complete white, and though I'm sure that my eyes _were_ open in the beginning of it, as Itsuki-san pulled away, I was forced to open my eyes once more.

"B-Because, I don't want to see the girl I l-love cry."

"… Eh?" I looked over my shoulder to see if there was someone else that she might've been talking to, but there wasn't anyone there, "… M-me…?" she nodded, and that's when my legs gave in.

XXX

**A/n:** **I'm not saying that I can't appreciate a sad or melancholic ending, but I just don't like the whole 'we're not together, but we're still happy'-kind of ending, it makes the emotions that they've felt during the story feel so cheap.**


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